Chapter 50: Poison Ivy

“Skye,” I yelled as I got up quickly and ran to him. He was rolling around, clutching his arm and groaning in pain.

“Skye, are you alright?” Dong Hae asked as he reached out to touch Skye’s arm.

“Don’t touch him,” Yun Ho said as he came forward. “He might have broken it. Skye, can you move your arm?”

“No…” Skye groaned.

“We’d better get him to the emergency room,” Jae Joong said.

The guys helped Skye up and brought him to Jae Joong’s car since it was more spacious than Yun Ho’s.

“I’ll pay the bill,” Yun Ho said as he walked back to the stall.

“Sierra, you can come later in Yun Ho’s car,” Jae Joong said as he got in. I looked in the backseat and saw that Dong Hae and Ee Teuk had already gotten in. The front seat was occupied by Hee Chul.

“Araso,” I sighed as I turned and walked back to join Yun Ho who was digging through his wallet for enough cash to pay for the food. “Do you have enough cash on you?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he said as he finally produced enough notes and loose change to pay for the meal.

The rest of them had piled into the other cars and they left together, leaving only Yun Ho’s Mini in the parking lot.

“There’s still so much food left.” I said as I looked at the abandoned tables.

“Yea, too bad Chang Min isn’t here,” he smiled.

“Let’s finish up the food,” I said. I didn’t want to go to the hospital so soon. I’ve never been the kind who wanted to be there to watch the doctor stitch up someone who got hurt. I can’t bear to watch.

“Don’t you want to be with Skye?” he asked.

“No. Not yet. I don’t want to be there when he screams in pain. I can’t take it,” I said as I sat down and started eating.

“I forgot that you didn’t deal well with hospitals,” he said quietly as he sat down and picked up his chopsticks.

“Yea… and sometimes I wish you didn’t remember anything at all,” I said as I downed a cup of soju.

Yun Ho kept quiet as he drank from his cup as well. Then he refilled my cup and his.

“I’m talking to you,” I said as I looked at him.

“Did you expect a reply for that statement?” he asked me. “I thought you wanted me to stop talking about it.”

“Yes I do. But do you ever?” I asked him as I gulped down the soju.

“Stop drinking like that. You know you can’t drink,” he said as he moved my cup away from me.

“When you’re around, I need to,” I said as I covered my face with my hands.

“What’s wrong, Sierra?” Yun Ho sighed. I laughed to myself when I heard him say that. What’s wrong with me? He had the nerve to ask me that.

“Forget it,” I waved my hand at him as I stood up. “Let’s go.”

I closed my eyes and faced the window throughout the entire journey to the hospital. On the way there, Yun Ho’s phone rang and he plugged in his hands-free earpiece.

“Hyung,” I could hear Jun Su say and the rest was quite inaudible.

“Which hospital?” Yun Ho asked and I could hear Jun Su jibber his reply. “Okay. We’re on our way.”

“How’s Skye?” I asked him as soon as he flipped his phone shut.

“They’re putting a cast on him. It doesn’t seem to be too serious.”

“He’s lucky it’s just his arm and not his leg. And he’s so lucky we’re singing slow songs for the awards, not fast ones. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to do any of the dance routines.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to believe he’s my age,” Yun Ho laughed.

“It just proves that age does not indicate the maturity of a guy. If you do mature, then you do. If you don’t, then you probably never will.”

“And what are you getting at?” he said as he glanced at me for a moment before turning his attention back to the road.

“If I were talking about you, I’d tell you,” I said as I rummaged through my bag. I took out my bottle of water and took a sip. He sighed as we stopped at a traffic light.

“So… are you guys ready for the MKMF tomorrow?” he asked.

“Hmm… the boys are always ready and I’ll be ready when we get on stage.”

“Don’t forget the red carpet,” he smiled.

“Oh… I hate that. My pictures always turn out bad.”

“You just need to find your angle.”

“Easy for someone who’s been doing it for, what, 5 years?”

“It’s never easy. I still get bad pictures. I’m just lucky that they’ve never ended up in the press,” he smiled.

“But they do end up on the Internet,” I laughed.

“Yes, they do,” he cringed. “I hate it when I see an ugly photo of me on the internet.”

“I wanna burn those ugly photos of me when I see any.”

“Same here. Let’s have a barbeque someday and we can use them to light the charcoal,” he laughed. I turned to look at him, and I smiled. It was nice to be able to talk to him like a friend again.

We arrived at the hospital shortly and went up straight to the room where Skye was. The guys were sprawled all over the place. It was a 2-patient ward but only Skye occupied it. A few of them were lying on the bed next to Skye’s. Some were on the sofa, some on Skye’s bed at his feet and some just leant against the walls.

“How’s the arm, Skye?” Yun Ho asked as he walked towards the bed.

“Just a little fracture. It’ll heal,” he smiled. I smacked him on the head.

“How can you still smile?” I scolded him.

“Owww… nuna… ap’a! I’m already injured and you still wanna hit me,” he whined.

“You shouldn’t have climbed on that chair. Why won’t you grow up?” I smacked him again.

“Aaah… araso… mian… I can still perform tomorrow.”

“Yea. Koktcheongman,” Dong Hae said. “The doctor said that he could still perform.”

“In a cast. What would your fans say? They’re gonna think I don’t take care of my tongsaeng!”

“Sierra,” Jae Joong reached out and pulled me over so that I sat on his lap. He was sitting on a chair by Skye’s bed. “No one’s gonna blame you,” he said as his arms tightened around my waist.

“Yea, nuna. I’ll make sure no one does,” Skye said.

A few minutes later, Shi Kyung hyung walked in with Shoei. He’d been at the counter outside settling the hospital bill.

“Skye, you monkey!” he yelled as he walked in, echoing my sentiments.

“I’m fine, hyung,” Skye said. The only people who scared Skye were the managers and producers, and he definitely looked scared now.

“Fine?? You’re going to walk the red carpet in a cast tomorrow! You call that fine?”

“Hyung…” Shoei said as he put a hand on hyung’s shoulder to get him to calm down. Shi Kyung hyung sighed and turned to walk out. “The bill has been paid. Let’s go.”

All of us filed out of the room obediently as Dong Hae helped Skye off the bed.

By the time we got home, it was about 8pm. As soon as we got into our apartment, Skye walked straight to his room and closed the door.

“What’s with him now?” Shoei asked as he looked at me.

“Dunno,” I shrugged as I flopped down on the sofa. Jae Joong had left after dropping us off since we had a long day ahead tomorrow. It was the MKMF and we were due for rehearsals and final fittings before the show.

“See you at the venue tomorrow,” he smiled.

“What time will you be there?” I asked him.

“Dunno… early, I guess.”

“Hyung wants us to be there at 9am.”

“Then I guess we’ll be there around the same time too.”

“Okay. Naeil payo,” I said as I kissed his cheek.

“Nawa,” he said as I pulled away and he put his hands behind my neck and guided my lips to his.

I touched my lips at the memory of his kiss and I smiled to myself.

“Why are you smiling to yourself?” Shoei said, as he sat down in the armchair located diagonally from where I was sitting.

“Why are you spying on me?” I asked him.

“I’m sitting right in front of you,” he said. “Can I avoid looking at you?”

“I’m going to bed,” I yawned and stretched as I got up from the sofa.

“Remember to set your alarm,” Shoei said.

“Araso…” I yawned again as I walked to my room.

By the time I’d finished showering, it was about 9pm. I lay down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. All the running we did and excitement of today was really tiring. I closed my eyes for a moment but opened them immediately as I realized that I could just fall asleep like that. I decided that I should check my mails since I haven’t been doing that for days. I flipped open my Sony VAIO and turned it on. As I waited for it to load, I hummed Lee Soo Young’s ‘Grace’ while buffing my nails.

As soon as my Y!M (Yahoo! Messenger) logged on, I was bombarded with offline messages. Most of them were from my friends in Malaysia, some from the girls in Asteria and there was one from my sister, who was in Singapore. I scrolled through the messages and deleted them, one by one, after reading. Just then, a message popped up.

haerin33: Onni! Are you there?

Hae Rin? How did she get my Yahoo! ID. I didn’t know that she had a Yahoo! account. It’s about 9pm in the USA, she must’ve just finished her work for the day.

Sierra: Here… wassup?

haerin33: Onni! I miss Korea…

Sierra: I’m sure you do. How’s the recording going?

haerin33: It’s so tough! Everyone here’s so serious. I don’t get any fun at all.

Sierra: This is how it’s going to be if you’re gonna be a big star ;)

haerin33: *sighs*

Sierra: On the bright side, your training will end soon and you’re gonna be a proper artiste.

haerin33: Yep! That’s the only thing that keeps me going. How’s Jae Joong oppa?

Sierra: He’s fine.

haerin33: Tell him I said hi!

Sierra: Will do… By the way… why do you have a yahoo account? Don’t you use NateOn?

haerin33: I wanted to talk to you, and I heard that you hardly use your NateOn, unless someone had asked you to turn it on.

Sierra: Yea… Too many people on NateOn and I don’t have time to talk to all of them.

haerin33: Does Jae Joong oppa have Y!M?

I wasn’t about to tell her he did. I’d made him get one so that he could turn on only his Y!M and talk to me, alone, because if he turned on his NateOn, he’d have the same problem as I do, too many people waiting to talk to him.

Sierra: He doesn’t.

haerin33: Aww... Too bad then...

Sierra: I’m gonna go now. I need to get up early tomorrow.

haerin33: Okay... bye onni!

Sierra: Bye!

And I logged off my Y!M. She’s a weird girl, talking to the girlfriend of the guy she liked. Did she think that she could learn something by getting close to me? I liked her in the past, but I’m slowly starting to dislike her. Maybe it’s just me being possessive. I never want to imagine how she would try to steal Jae Joong from me.

I flipped open my phone and dialed Jae Joong’s number. I really needed to hear his voice now.

“Yoboseyo?” someone said when the call got through. It wasn’t Jae Joong.

“Is Jae Joong there?” I asked.

“Oh! Sierra!” It was Chang Min.

“Hi, Chang Min. Why are you answering your hyung’s phone?”

“He’s in the shower.”

“Oh… Then I’ll talk to you,” I laughed.

“Haha! Okay… talk!”

“How’s the date with Kristi?”

“Erm…” he stalled for a second. I could imagine him blushing right this moment.

“Don’t be shy,” I teased.

“It’s not really a date. We just went shopping, a movie, dinner, and talked about old times.”

“Old times? Haha! Makes you sound like an old man.”

“They are old times! I’ve not seen her for years.”

“And I bet she exceeded your expectation when you saw her again,” I said.

“Uhmm…”

“She’s cute!”

“Yes she is,” he admitted.

“Good for you.”

“Ah…. Komawo… I guess. Hehe!” he laughed nervously.

“What are you doing with my phone?” I head Jae Joong asks Chang Min. He must have just finished showering.

“Entertaining Sierra while you’re showering,” Chang Min answered. “Here!” Chang Min said, and I could hear the phone exchange hands.

“Sierra?” Jae Joong said.

“Nae…”

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Just wanted to hear your voice,” I said.

“Really?” he said and I could picture him grinning. He always does when I say something mushy like that. It’s as though he’d hit the jackpot.

“Chongmal,” I said.

“Can I call you back in a few minutes? Need to get dressed.”

“Okay.”

“Talk to you in a minute.”

“Araso,” I said as we both hung up.

I dropped my phone onto my bed and closed my eyes. It would be great if I could just go to sleep now. I tried to keep awake by listening to my mp3s. I looked at my phone 10 minutes later, it still hadn’t rung. What was Jae Joong doing? Here I was, falling asleep and he still hadn’t called. Another 10 minutes later, I finally gave in. I turned off the lights, got into bed and closed my eyes.

I was in the middle of a dream. I was dreaming about the red carpet at the MKMF. I got out of the limo and I was wearing this huge baby blue gown; something like the one Cinderella wore to the ball. I was walking down the red carpet, oddly enough, alone. Suddenly, I heard someone call my name and I felt someone touch my arm. I turned around in my dream and I was jolted awake. I opened my eyes to see a figure standing before me in the dark and my heart stopped for a second. I opened my mouth, ready to scream, and the figure covered my mouth with his hands.